No Word of the Year for 2013

Instead I will be picking a theme for the year – generally something in my business that I’d like to improve upon – and in 2013 that theme is Making Art.

But as I noted, this doesn’t cover the idea of intention or “being”. It’s all about doing and I believe that focusing on who I am and who I want to be are extremely important.

Words for a Lifetime

So why not pick a word of the year that focusing on being as I’ve done in the past?

Because this idea doesn’t resonate with me anymore. It feels incomplete, short sighted.

I pick a word here a word there but the big picture is missing.

When I pick a word I think “I want the word all the time” – which is why I ended up with Joy as my word of the decade. I didn’t want it for just a year – I always want joy.

Solution? I’m going to pick a list of words that are the guiding principles and values by which I want to live my life – always. From there I will craft a personal mission statement. Not just for a year.

And then, the make sure this isn’t just a fun beginning of the year exercise, I will be reviewing my list of words and mission statement 3 times a year to see how things are going. To see where I need a bit of a tune up.

But at the moment I’m crazy busy (more on that in the next post) so I’ve slated this activity for end of March. So check back in a few months for an update!

What are Your Values?

Want to write your own mission statement? These articles can help you identify your values:

Excellent links Lisa as ever, and good reasoning too. Why stop at one year, when you can define a vision for the future? Yes that vision will change over time as it probably should but a Mission Statement written now will also act as a marker for progress. I might join you in just over eight weeks!

The analogy I think of is this, instead of going on a diet you are making a lifestyle change. The one word with an expiration date implies short term and is not descriptive enough to be effective. This makes sense. Word of the year didn’t work for me the first year I tried it. This is probably why.